Baran-Unland: Joliet ‘haunted school’ represents a hidden Halloween gem

On Friday night, I went through a really fun, family-friendly haunted school in Joliet.

And I wish more people had come out for it. Maybe next Halloween.

St. Joseph Academy in Joliet hosts the haunted attraction as a fundraiser for its school, and the event has families in mind from start to finish.

[ Joliet Catholic school to host haunted house Friday and Saturday ]

For starters, students, alumni and staff work together, from staging the displays – which are more spooky than terrifying – to lurking in the shadows, dressed to startle.

And startle they did. One of my adult sons thought his brother was behind him – and learned the truth when he turned around.

Even the $5 admission wasn’t too frightening for most families’ wallets. And I suspect no one was turned away for inability to pay.

Before the Grim Reaper slipped around the door with a lantern, patrons chose their level of scare, from lights on for the youngest children to “the full treatment” for teens and adults, said Jan Novotny, head of school at St. Joseph Academy.

We opted for the “full treatment” and found it delightful. The atmosphere was more gothic than horror, which is right up my interest level. The displays had layers of visual subtext, too. For instance, a cob-webby Christmas tree in the hall also had an “eyeball” buried within its branches.

You also don’t see the ghostly child in the doll room right away, as your gaze is steered toward the macabre dolls. But she’s there, off to the side, rocking a doll.

The lighting and arrangement of the pathways toyed with the sense of direction and added to the surrealness of the experience. If I had to compare the experience to a movie, the St. Joseph Academy haunted school had the ambiance of Mike Flanagan’s miniseries “The Haunting of Hill House.”

The only disappointing part was that so many people missed a great experience. I arrived about 7:30 p.m. Friday in the rain and saw only one other attendee when I left.

Novotny told me quite a few families with preschoolers had come out earlier.

“But we never know what we’ll get,” Novotny said, admitting that some years the traffic is light.

At one point, Novotny told my 9-year-old granddaughter that she died 140 years ago. That didn’t scare my granddaughter, who eagerly went through the haunted school twice.

Now my granddaughter wants to be on the other side – of the event – next year.

Denise M. Baran-Unland is the features editor at The Herald-News. Contact her at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.